Like it or not, Donald Trump will be your next president

Now, before you take up arms over that statement, take a minute to carefully peruse the evidence pointing to precisely such an outcome. Because — no matter your opinions concerning the maladroit, cocksure demagogue with a fondness for describing himself in the third person — it’s almost inevitable you’ll soon be calling him President Trump.

Take, for instance, Trump’s almost miraculously massive following’s aptitude in forcing the GOP establishment to its knees in concession once Ted Cruz and John Kasich abruptly withdrew their bids for the White House. As has rightly been reported, this indicates a Republican Party in utter disarray.

However, despite the chaos, Trump’s veritable chokehold on — and indiscriminate thwarting of — politics-as-usual became immediately apparent with House Speaker Paul Ryan’s capitulation that he would, indeed, support the presumptive nominee in whatever capacity necessary at the Republican National Convention.

Though GOP insiders might claim Trump’s wild success has ‘destroyed’ party tradition — and it arguably has — focusing on just the GOP downplays the ataxia unfolding on the other side of the aisle.

Controversy over Trump has been matched, if not surpassed, solely by the contentiously war-mongering — not to mention fundamentally mendacious — campaign of Hillary Clinton. Mystifying innumerable independent observers, Clinton’s dominance of the Democratic race for the presidency continually defies polls touting Bernie Sanders as the infinitely more popular candidate.

Granted, such polls are notoriously unreliable predictors of an actual vote, but their function as barometers of national opinion facilely illustrates trends that, over time, leave little room for doubt. Yet, as state after state holds primaries and caucuses, reports of potential electoral fraud and gross voter disenfranchisement explode in headlines and social media — turning any doubt about decisive poll results into an electoral gray area worthy of a closer look.

Such rampant corruption of the voting process demands meticulous consideration, as those more prone to question such discrepancies might justifiably conjecture whether Hillary Clinton’s zeal for office has trumped her obligation to adhere to the law.

Besides whatever shady wrangling may be taking place, however, the Democratic Party’s devotion to establishment narratives has cleaved a sharp rift — which likely won’t be bridged even after the next president sits at the helm.

Sanders’ supporters previously claimed they would reluctantly concede their votes to Clinton should he not garner the nomination — but even that may be changing. According to an informal, albeit limited poll performed by the Guardian during a Sanders rally in Sacramento, fewer than half stated they would automatically lend support in such a situation — with three of 22 people saying they would go as far as voting Trump and one vowing to move to Britain instead of voting Hillary.

“Clinton’s average ‘strongly unfavorable’ rating in probability sample polls from late March to late April, 37 percent, is about 5 percentage points higher than the previous high between 1980 and 2012,”FiveThirtyEight’s Harry Enten reported.

Yet she continues to maintain a lead in pledged delegates — and every indication at the time of this article shows Clinton with overwhelming but unofficial support from superdelegates, at 525 to Sanders’ paltry 39. Knowing this, Sanders has already hinted at plans for a contested Democratic convention.

“I think what this campaign is looking for and what the senator is looking for is going into the convention and coming out with the nomination,” Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, toldCNN in early April. In other words, the self-declared Democratic Socialist harbors no intentions of throwing in the towel early.

So, you’re probably asking, how does any of this pertain to Trump winning the election?

Simple — the deck has already stacked itself.

While the Democratic establishment desperately clings to a Hillary nomination — so slavishly it potentially bent the rules past the breaking point — the impassioned grassroots movement backing Sanders potentiates the likelihood the convention could devolve into pandemonium. As more and more Sanders devotees vow their allegiance to vote #BernieOrBust, the Clinton establishment serves more as a divisive wedge than a viable campaign.

And this is where those highly controversial superdelegates come into play — precisely as the Democratic Party intended them to when they were instituted decades ago.

As the International Business Timesreported on the potential looming contested convention, “even if every superdelegate backed the winner of his or her state Sanders still can’t win enough to nab the nomination. Only 15 percent of all the Democratic delegates are supers. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win, and if Clinton keeps up her current level of support, she could win a majority of the pledged delegates by June 7. To tilt the scales, Sanders would need to win 70 percent of the vote in the remaining contests, a high bar that far exceeds how he has performed so far.”

As if the situation couldn’t play out more smoothly in Trump’s favor, the latest poll, released Thursday, puts the billionaire narcissist ahead of diehard war hawk, Clinton, for the first time this election season.Rasmussen Report’s first White House Watch poll — pitting potential candidate match-ups for the national election — places Trump beating Clinton, 42 percent to her 37 percent. Though not sizeable, it’s still a palpable lead.

If Sanders cannot win the delegate count — or, rather, is materially barred from winning through dicey establishment tactics — and Clinton is already polling behind Trump in theoretical elections, it appears the United States has clamorously fumbled its way to installing Trump in the White House.

Polls vascillate, as does popular opinion, but this collision course by inept design appears most likely to place one of the most hated candidates in presidential election history at the helm of the so-called Free World.